Rick Santorum: WikiLeaks founder a terrorist

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., listens as he is introduced before… (AP photo )

November 30, 2010|By HOLLY RAMER

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Possible Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told New Hampshire voters Tuesday that the founder of the WikiLeaks website should be prosecuted as a terrorist for posting classified national security documents.

"We haven't gone after this guy, we haven't tried to prosecute him, we haven't gotten our allies to go out and lock this guy up and bring him up on terrorism charges," Santorum said of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "What he's doing is terrorism, in my opinion."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said WikiLeaks acted illegally in posting the material and that the Obama administration was taking "aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information."

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, spoke to the Goffstown Rotary Club during his seventh trip to New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary. He said the leaked U.S. diplomatic memos have exposed a sense of growing urgency and frustration across the Middle East over Iran's nuclear ambitions, which he accused President Barack Obama of ignoring.

"This administration seems to be OK with a nuclear Iran. They're doing nothing to stop it," he said, adding that Obama should be focused on Iran instead of trying to ram a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia through Congress.

Obama has said that failing to ratify the arms pact could jeopardize improving relations with Russia and send a mixed signal to Iran about the strength of the international front against its nuclear program.

Iran will discuss its nuclear program at an international meeting in Geneva next week with the European Union's foreign affairs chief and officials from the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.

Santorum, who served two terms in Congress before being ousted by Democrat Bob Casey in 2006, said he's been pleased with the reception he's getting in New Hampshire as he decides whether to run for president.

"I've gotten a lot of encouragement from folks, both concrete — people saying `We want you to run, we'll help you' and saying `We'd like to see you again and get to know you better,"' he said in an interview. "Folks are used to seeing you more than once, seeing you under different circumstances and testing whether there's an authenticity there or not."

Though he got a warm reception from Rotary Club members, one woman who introduced Santorum flubbed his name and the other appeared not to realize he was no longer in Congress when she told audience members to check out his Senate desk stuffed with Hershey candy if they visit Washington.